Each year during the Fall and Winter seasons, inclement weather and the resulting lack of use and interest by swimming pool users results in most swimming pools being inactive for many months of the year. To protect the swimming pool from the inclement weather and other misadventures, most pools are covered with a heavy winter pool cover during this extended period of inactivity and not uncovered until warmer weather returns. If possible, pool repairs, maintenance, and improvements are scheduled during this regular period of inactivity, so the swimming pool cover must facilitate these events by being easy to install and remove. Similarly, during the Spring and Summer, for health and public safety reasons, the temporary covering of a swimming pool with a lighter pool cover is customary in many locales when the pool is left unsecured for other than a de minimis period of time. For example, many public swimming pools are closed each evening until the next morning, during which time the pool may be covered. It would be advantageous to have a universal swimming pool cover that is lightweight and easy to use, and which is capable of covering the pool for either an extended or temporary period of time without the need for separate swimming pool covers.
One drawback with most, if not all, existing swimming pool covers is that over time the cover will become permanently stretched out-of-shape. This is due to the weight associated with the accumulation of water at the center of the cover without the existence of an effective drain mechanism. Over time, such accumulation will exacerbate the sagging of the cover. As the pool cover continues to sag, it will be stretched out-of-shape, have general reduced effectiveness, and eventually have to be replaced by the owner. It would be advantageous to have a swimming pool cover that is lightweight and easy to use, yet not be stretched out-of-shape as a result of the common sagging problem of conventional covers.
Another shortcoming for some of the swimming pool covers contained in the prior art pertains to safety concerns. If a child were to fall onto a cover having drainage holes, the child could get his/her appendages caught in the holes and/or fall through them. Likewise, in the event a child should accidently get caught under the cover, in the ensuing struggle and resulting panic, the total weight of the cover would be significantly increased as a result of the captured water on the exterior surface, and it would be difficult for the child to physically overcome this weight. It would be advantageous to have a swimming pool cover with safe drainage holes and which does not accumulate water.
One prior art approach that is directed to these particular shortcomings, is a type of cover which has separate fine mesh-like cloth material sewn into the center of the cover to operate as a drain. However, this approach has not worked effectively as the cover is relatively heavy, the cloth mesh will clog and the cover continues to accumulate water in places other than where the drain is positioned, and, over time, will sag and be stretched out-of-shape.
Depending on the size and shape of the swimming pool to be covered, the initial out-of-pocket cost associated with various types of covers contained in the prior art is relatively high. It would be an advantage in the art if a lightweight, multi-layer swimming pool cover could be manufactured relatively inexpensively by utilizing thermoplastic films, be long-lasting, easy to maintain, and easy to clean.
The present invention overcomes the problems inherent in the prior art. The present invention combines a universal, lightweight swimming pool cover with an integral drain and safety mechanism which increases the effectiveness and safety of the cover when the cover is in place without significantly increasing the total weight or thickness of the swimming pool cover.